I had no idea when I decided to talk about vitamins today that there was such a controversy going on right now.
 

Apparently while I wasn’t looking the National Institutes of Health had a consensus conference last year and they actually neglected to send me an invitation! Oh, well. The president doesn’t ask my advice either.  Their consensus was a resounding “Duh.”  Well, actually they said the evidence “insufficient to recommend either for or against the use of multivitamin/ multimineral supplements by the American public to prevent chronic disease.”
 

That set off a furor in the medical community and the health industry.  I have spent the day reading articles by doctors flaming doctors. 
 

Now, just remember this is my opinion, and I am not a doctor or nutritionist.  From what I read, some recent studies are showing that taking a vitamin pill doesn’t help that much if you eat a balanced diet.  That is a BIG IF.
 

So, I went to the USDA site and pulled up the Dietary Reference Intakes.  Then I considered what I ate yesterday.
 

Breakfast:
1 banana
½ cup serving of oatmeal
Herbal Tea
 

Lunch:
Romain Salad with tomato, cucumber, shredded carrots and some garbanzo beans.
1 slice of high fiber, whole grain bread with butter.
Water with lemon
 

Dinner:
Stir fried veggies with shrimp served with noodles. My veggies were Napa Cabbage, zucchini, red peppers, mushrooms.
Water with lemon
 

Sounds like a healthy, balanced diet?  I missed the DRI on almost every nutrient listed except vitamin A and Phosphorus.  Try this yourself at mypyramidtracker . Yesterdays food was actually pretty good. But there are days I crave a fast food hamburger, or am busy and forget a meal completely. So where do the other nutrients I need come from? They have to come from my Pro Vitamin Complete.
More on this tomorrow,Tim